Courageous
by Clotilda Maximus
Summary: Years have passed since Merida chose her own fate, now she has married and has her own son and daughter, Clotilda and Liam. But when her husband dies in a battle Merida must leave her two children to be raised by their grandparents, so that she can keep the kingdom from falling apart. So what now of her unruly daughter, who only wants to be as brave as her mother?
1. Chapter 1

**Courageous**

"_Courage is resistance to fear; mastery of fear- not absence of fear_." –Mark Twain

There was a time in my childhood where my heart stopped, my breath went still, and my mind fell to a calmingly peaceful serenity. I've only felt this once, and I've been searching my whole life to find it again. This one time move my very being, my soul, to something. Some deep bond that was lost, some feeling of connection and belonging that I had never felt before. But the one and only time that I found it was while I was staring down the eyes of a bear.

I was very young, about seven or so, when I ran off into the woods surrounding DunBroch castle, and surprisingly I had gotten myself lost, which for me was a very great insult since my father and I took pride in our keen sense of direction, any other day I could have been blinded, binded, and dropped into any part of those woods and instantly known where I was or which way the castle would be. However, by some twisted humor of fate I had gotten myself lost, and alone, in the eerie light that sun cast through the trees.

It was getting to be dusk when I happened upon a stream that cut into a hill of craggy rock spotted with a few firm pines. I was so parched and rattled from wondering around all day, that I rushed over to it without a second thought and spilled huge gulps of the cool water down my gullet, pausing only to catch my breath and fill my mouth again. Once my thirst was quenched I made to sit on the shore and try and figure out where I was when a cacophony of noise invaded the gentile stream that startled me so bad that I screamed and fell back into the shallow swell. When it seemed to have come to a stop I raised my head up a small fraction and peered through my long dark hair to see what had made such a crash.

Along the opposite bank a small sapling had fallen on to a shrub that grew along the water's edge, and among the heap of tangled foliage something terrible was clawing to make its way out. I froze at the sight and tried my best to silently climb the bank before it was freed, when a low cry called out from it and halted me in my tracks. The noise I heard that day, I'll never forget, it was a cry of pain caused from being alone and afraid something that I was very able to understand. I looked up again and saw a small nose breaching the pile, a wee black little thing no bigger than a black berry, and watched as a wee black furred head emerged with it.

**Thanks for reading! More to come I PROMISE! I wrote the story out, I just have to type it on to my computer!**


	2. Chapter 2

"_Fear always springs from ignorance."- _Ralph Waldo Emerson

No sooner had I seen the head, than it had vanished back beneath the wreckage.

"Hold on!" I cried out, and then tumbled along the rocks to reach the trapped creature. Had I know it was a bear I might have been more wary, for I had been told to many times, by my grandfather, of the demon bear Mor'du, and how he had savagely ripped off his leg. But even though I didn't know what it was, I was still going to help the lost creature.

As I reached the bank something began to claw the heap again, and I flinched back thinking that there was something else beyond the foliage, other than the trapped creature.

"Hold on! I'll get you out!" I plunged in between the branches, scrabbling to take hold of any thing loose or weak. The clawing continued, as well as the creature's frantic cries, and I hurried faster to find the poor thing. There seemed to be just one more, enormous, log between me and the wee thing but I couldn't make it budge.

"Ahk! What am I going to do now?"

I tried to call out and see if anyone was nearby, but nothing happened. So I paced along the shore, while the clawing grew louder next to me.

"Oh, just SHUT IT! Will ya?" And to my surprise it did…for a moment.

That was when I noticed a huge stick dangling over the water's edge. A stick that was just large enough for me to wedge in behind the log and pry loose from the heap! I leaped at it, plunged it against the log and then franticly pushed against the limb until I thought the bough just might break. Suddenly the clawing had stopped and was soon replaced by the sound of groaning wood. The groaning pended a thud that seemed to rock the whole woods, and landed me flat on my butt in the stream again.

As I pushed my hair out of my eyes, I watched the breach that had been made and the wee face that was again staring back at me. It looked around the hole as if it were unsure of what to do next, as if the possibility of success had never occurred to it. I leaned forward on the log and let my head rest on my arms.

"Hey," I spoke as if speaking to a friend, not a whisper, not a call, just… as if I were speaking another human. The deep eyes then locked on to mine, and it was like I said; a calm swept over me, and it felt like I was making a friend for life, letting this moment burn into me and nothing else affect it. Letting every other thing, every thought and sound fade into the background as my bear and I spend centuries of just communicating with our eyes and nothing else. The world was tranquil, until my father suddenly pulled me away from behind.

"Clotilda!" he screamed urgently trying to drag me back across the stream, "Get back! Get back!" Then I notice that he had drawn his sword, and was screaming back at my bear. I was slowly coming back to my senses, but didn't understand why he was attacking my bear.

"Daddy, No! _No!_" I screamed trying to fight back and defend my bear. Then I heard the roar, and looked up just above where the sapling had fallen from and saw only a set of snarling jaws with foam dripping at the mouth. I saw the wee cub's mother.

My father gripped me firmly and spoke urgently into my ear, "Move slowly Clotilda. We're goin' back across the bank, and then I'll put you on my horse." Another roar came from the mother and reverberated across the forest. My father tugged me back a little, and I fell in line beside him, we made it only a few paces when the mother started to rush forward down the bank. I was swung up into my Father's arms and buried my face into his bearded cheek when the roar stopped and the sound of the bears lumbering charge was gone.

To this day I am still perplexed by what happened, and doubt that it really even happened. Because the only thing you can do if you're being charged down by a threatened mother bear would be to make peace with your maker. Instead the charging mother had stopped, and her roar was replaced by what sounded like an almost comically, squeaky, pitched version. I disentangled my head from my father to see that my bear was standing in front of us _roaring_!

The wee cub then lumbered forward and nuzzled its face into the mother's chest, and that was the last that I saw of my bear. My father leapt up the bank, and raced away with me on his horse, staying deathly quiet until we had put enough distance between us and the bear. Then he reared in his horse to a stop and dismounted so he could look me straight in the eye, as he said, "Clotilda, what where you thinking?"

"I'm sorry, Da…"

"SORRY! You were staring down a bear cub! Your mother and I were worried sick and we've told you, 'If you're goin' out into the woods,-'"

"'Be back at noon and cheek with us' I really am sorry Da, I _just_… " I choked up on the last word, and was trying to stop my impending tears so I could finish, "WHAT Clohtilda? What!" My father prompted impatiently.

"I just … –_got lost!_" And with that my attempts at fighting back my tears utterly failed. I cried, other than one other time in my life since my father's death, would I ever let myself cry again.

My father looked at me with shocked sea green eyes, then wrapped his arms around me and stroked my head whispering, "There, there, now… Hush… hush…" He looked me in the eyes again and said, "Everyone gets lost at least once, the next thing to do is be found," Then he hugged me again, " My Clan prided themselves about knowing where they are, and where they want to go. However, even we must get lost at least once in life." I hugged him back, "I'm just glad it's over, I never want to be lost again!" Then my father kissed my forehead, scooped me back into his arms, and we rode back to the rest of the search party. My mother scolded and kissed me furiously while I stayed in my father's arms all the way back to the castle.

When we arrived back at the castle I retold my story of the bear to my mother,who was caring my brother in her belly at the time, but she only smiled, patted my hand, and sent me off to bed. While my father watched me, with worried sea green eyes, as I went up the grand stairs that lead to the castle's many rooms. I would find out the next morning that my father was called away latter to defend a border in his home clan land. Little did we know that it would be the last time my mother or I would ever see him again.

My three uncles had accompanied him to the battle but when the returned they no longer had their mischievous grins. They came home somber, and delivered the news to my mother; that my father had died at the hands of the enemy, and that was all anyone would ever say. No one would tell me who the enemy was, why they had attacked us, how my father had died, or even if we had won. And I wouldn't be able to find out until much later.

Not soon after my brother was born, my mother left us in the care of our grandparents to "Go an watch over the clans..."

**Thanks again for reading! And for the reviews! I can't belive my little tidbit got so many views... Anywho, like I said I got this, I just have to type it XP *I may even have a pic of Clotilda to go with it next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

***Thank you** **everyone for being so patient! I have been having a LOT of drama in my life for the past few weeks, and so I am finally starting to feel calm again. So as promised, CHAPTER 3!***

"_The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change- and we all instinctively avoid it." –E.B. White_

Today was the day where everything about my life was going to change. Up until now, I had been livin' with my grandparents with my wee brother, Liam, learnin' to write and read, to play music and dance _properly_, to speak elegantly when spoken to, and to run the castle. However, my grandmother was cautious and never told me much of the other clans, other than what I needed to know of my suitors, and strictly forbade my grandfather from teaching me to use so much as a knife!

"A lady does not have, nor use, weapons of any kind!" She would shriek, over and over again, to the point that all my food is cut by a servant. But today this was all going to change!

I am finally going to meet my suitors, and leave the shores of Dunbroch for the summer! As decreed by my mother, I would spend three summers with each of my suitors and then chose whomever I wanted as my husband. And, alright… having to choose from three men I have never known isn't something that I particularly want to do at all, but I'll have my first real chance to find some freedom. A chance to be away from my grandmother and make my own path, even if it is only for a little while… And even if it means parading around the castle in some loathsome and hideously frilly dress while my grandmother packs everything she deems worthy enough _for me. _However, that is why I have Murdina!

Murdina is the only one who keeps me sane around here, and is the only one keeping me from jumping off the tower right now…

"Oh come on now _Cloh _it could have been worse!" she whispered to me as I struggled to gracefully pace the castle halls. And replied through a clenched tooth smile,

"_HOW could this PINK _monstrosity GET ANY WORSE!?"

"Your Grandmother could have sewn on the extra beaded and embroidered trim that she wanted, but I talked her out of it." She said with a smirk, "Said it would make it too heavy to wrestle over your head!"

To which I smiled, leaned against one of the stone arched windows, and breathed a sigh of gratitude. "Mury where would I be without cha'?"

"Probably locked back up in the tower until you _had_ to be married!" To which we both started to laugh, not for its ridiculousness, but for its truth. My Grandmother and mother probably would have been happy to see me safe and sound in the towers keep. Safe from goin' out into the forest, safe from gettin' to close to the shore, safe from sharp and pointy obj-" _Oof!" _I didn't have time to finish the thought, before I was charged upon by Liam, who hastily darted behind Murdina and me before squeaking, "_Save me!_"

"From what?" I hissed, patting his ruddy red scalp. "_GRANDMUM!" _he replied. No sooner had he said the word than did the lady's shadow appear coming around the bend.

"Oh no," I said, quickly shoving Liam down and Mury closer to me. _I have to distract her! I have to-,_ thinking quickly I whispered to Mury, "_Stare at that crack in the wall, then on my mark scream like there is a mouse! Liam, be ready to run, in front of Mury!" _A small tug at the back of my dress meant he understood and would be ready to follow.

"Liam! … LIAM! … LI-AM!" A shrill and testy voice called, as my dear and sweet Grandmother appeared around the corner. She was still breathlessly stunning for being such an old woman, her once lovely brown hair was now completely gray and strung back into two long tails that reached the hem of her dress, which whipped suddenly across her back as she noticed the "two" of us. "Oh! Oh! Girls, I almost didn't a' see ya' there!" _Which probably would have been better, _I thought as she glanced around and asked, " Have you seen Liam? I need to get 'im ready for the presentation."

"Nope! Haven't seen hide, nor hair of 'im Mam…" I said, craning my head around her to glance at the crack, then bellowed, "Good Heavens! WHAT IS THAT!?" At her cue, Mury screamed in perfected girlish fright, "EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeecccccccccccccccckkk! A MOUSE!" Making my Grandmother's head to whip around and stare at the crack, while Liam and Mury went sprinting away from the hall with an echoing "Eeck!"

"Oh! Dear heavens girl! Tis, only a wee mouse! Nothing that a good and starving cat cannot fix!" My Grandmother called after her. "At least you are not charging off like some wild horse, Clotilda," she finished with a smile.

"Tis only the fact that I cannot a move in this- THING!" I replied outraged.

"Well then, I shall have to make you some more while you are away!" She said in a cheerful and proud voice, and to which I shuddered inwardly.

*** By the way I'm holding a poll to dicide which clan Clotilda will visit first, so cast those votes quick before I make up my mind!***


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